IDEAS FOR
BULLETIN BOARDS

Are you out of bulletin
board ideas? Below are some ideas that will work for almost any
classroom, any subject, and any grade level. Most of the ideas I
borrowed from other teachers. I thank them for their creativity.

Are you tired of the
same background for your bulletin board? Do you need a fresh
idea? You've come to the right place. Below is a list of new
ideas for covering a bulletin board. Most of the materials can be
cut for borders as well. Also, some of the materials (even
fabric) can be laminated for die cutting letters and shapes.

Sheets of scrapbooking paper

Curtains -- either flat or on a curtain rod to draw attention to the
bulletin board

Pictures of former students

Magazine pages

Old greeting cards

Picture post cards

Calendar pages or pictures

Book covers

Pages from old textbooks

Pages from old encyclopedias

Fabric -- check the remnant bin for bargains

A tablecloth

Wrapping paper

Newspaper

Comic pages

Wall
paper

A sheet

Felt

A shower curtain

Paint -- don't
forget the stencils

Cover a bulletin board with outdoor artificial grass carpeting. It may
be bought at any home improvement center by the yard in different colors
and is inexpensive. It's lightweight enough it can be easily stapled to
the board and it will stay. Back your lettering, pictures, etc. with felt
and they will stick like magic to the artificial grass. This idea works
well for interactive bulletin boards. For example, you may use it for
"magnetic poetry," or for a review game like "Eduball,"
an interactive football game for reviewing test material, or for teaching
geometry, allowing students to manipulate the geometric shapes. It's a
flannel board for older students. My sixth grade students have enjoyed it
and have never thought it was babyish.

Create a bulletin board to show what teachers look for in good
writing. Use the posters (PDF) that I have created and are free for you to
download. The set consists of a title poster and one for each trait,
including the seventh trait of presentation.

Create a bulletin board to get your students excited about
Groundhog Day. Pam Cooley did, and "it has really gotten the kids
excited about Phil's prediction. We change the "Do Not Disturb"
sign daily as we count down the days 'til Feb. 2nd. I plan to put a big
"Phil" coming out of his hill along with or without his shadow
(whatever the case may be) on Feb. 2nd."

Use a background that looks like bricks. You can draw your own or use
clipart if you can't find wallpaper, paper, or fabric. Some of the bricks
need to stick out further than the rest. You can do this by cutting a
brick that is exactly the same as the one that you want to stick out. Put
foam or layers of paper behind it to make it stick out about an inch or
so. On every brick that is sticking out, put a word or phrase on it that
is something the students need to overcome. Some examples appear
below. Choose terms that will inspire discussion. For the title,
paint (or draw) it on the bricks so that it looks like graffiti.

For this bulletin board, you need giant plastic
sunglasses. You could also use clipart to print large sunglasses onto
cardstock. The content of the board could be anything--birthdays, rules,
upcoming units, interesting books, etc.

If your local newspaper covers your school pretty regularly, cut out the
articles about your students and place them on a bulletin board. You can
do the same thing if your school has its own newspaper. I now teach at a
high school, and I do this for my ESL students. I only have two articles
on it right now, but I'm sure by the end of the year, I will have several.
Also, I only have one bulletin board in my room, and it is being used for
something else. I am using the closet door for this bulletin board.

This idea works well for P.E. games and sports. Use playing cards
(front side up) as a border. For the title, put one letter on the back of
a playing card. Or find clipart in the shape of playing cards.

Make a bulletin board
for all of the schedules and calendars you usually file away or
have on your desk. This idea is so simple, it often gets
overlooked. I change the background and border, but I never take
it down because it is the one bulletin board my students use
every day. I call mine "For Your Information." Below is a list of schedules and calendars
I post on my bulletin board.

Collect baby pictures
and current pictures from your students. Place the baby pictures
down one side of the bulletin board and the current pictures down
the other side. Give each baby picture a number and each current
picture a letter. Have a contest to see who can correctly match
the pictures.

A variation is to do
this with pictures of the staff and faculty on a bulletin board
that the whole school can access. This is guaranteed to be a hit
with the students.

Special Note: Be aware of any students who may have been adopted and
those who do not have baby pictures for other reasons.

This bulletin board
will change weekly. On Monday, post five to ten trivia questions
for the students to answer. The questions can be related to your
current topic or theme or be from current events in the news.
Place a box or can with a slit in the lid near the bulletin
board. The students are to write the answers to the questions and
their name on a slip of paper and put it in the box by Friday.

Throw out papers
without names or with incorrect answers. From the remaining
papers, draw three to five and award small prizes. Throw away all
of the slips of paper and begin fresh for the next week's
contest.

Cover a bulletin board
with blank butcher paper. At the top, write a thought provoking
question. Let the students write their thoughts on the paper in
their free time. They will also want to read what others have
written.

If you are
communicating with others by email or snail mail, post a map
appropriate to the locations. As mail comes in, put a marker on
the map to indicate where the mail originated. Your students will
enjoy being able to visualize the locations of their pen pals.

If you are receiving
post cards, the post cards can be used to create the border for
this bulletin board.

Cut poster board or
railroad board into the same amount of puzzle pieces as you have
students. Be sure to mark the wrong side for ease in putting the
puzzle back together. As the students come in, give them a puzzle
piece and instructions to draw or paste pictures on it that
represent the student. Instruct students to also include their
names. When everyone is finished, the students are to put the
puzzle back together and staple their pieces in the correct
position on the bulletin board.

Create a puzzle piece
for yourself in advance to use as an example and staple it to the
board as the first piece of the puzzle. You may also want to
leave a few blank pieces for students who arrive later in the
year.

At the end of the year,
have the students write statements on colored index cards
explaining what is great about the team (or class.) Make sure the
students sign their names. Save them for the next year. When the
new school year starts, post the cards on the bulletin board. The
new students will enjoy reading the comments and it will set a
tone for what they can expect.

Create a bookshelf
background for a bulletin board. Give each student a cut-out of a
book spine. Have the students write the title and author of book
they recommend others read on the cut-out. They should also sign
their names to their suggestions.

Cut out pictures of
places, real or imaginary, from magazines and laminate them. You can also
print pictures from the Internet. Put
them on a bulletin board with the above caption.

You could leave
it like this, or have students add captions to the pictures that
say, "I read the book _____________________, by
____________________, and it took me here:"

You could also add a map of the world and use yarn to draw a line from the
picture to its location on the map. For places not on the map, add a
"map" (picture) for outer space. If it is an imaginary place
that can't be added to a real map, perhaps there is a map in the book itself
that you could copy and use.

For the border,
place movie ticket stubs on 2-3" strips of
construction paper and laminate the strips. Ask your
local theater for discarded movie ticket stubs. If you
tell them what you want them for they may save some for
you. You can also print your own using clipart from the Internet.

The caption for
the bulletin board should read "Our Feature
Attraction is
_______________________________________" Fill in the
blank with the title of you unit, theme, or lesson. An
example could be The Parts of Speech.

You could add a
subheading that says, "Starring ________________ and
_______________________. In the blanks list your subunits
or topics relating to your unit. Examples could be Nouns,
Pronouns, Verbs, etc.

Add pictures to
help illustrate your unit. Arrange them as if they were
part of a movie poster.

You could also add
cut-outs of cameras, tripods, theater screens, etc. An
unrolled roll of film would also be a nice touch. You can find
clipart on the Internet that would be perfect.

For a beginning of the
year bulletin board, use the game board for a Twister game as the
background. Put the spinner on as well, with the words "A
new twist to a new year." Add cut-out feet and hands with
the students' names on them. It is very colorful!

This
bulletin board is very simple. Cover the bulletin board with a
background that will work all year because you won't be changing
this one. Put up the title and you are ready for the first day.
Take pictures of class activities during the year and post them
on the bulletin board. Add some funny captions and you have an
instant, permanent bulletin board. At the end of the year, let
the students take home their favorite pictures.

This bulletin board is about you, the
teacher. Choose a background and border that represent your
personality. Collect pictures, clip art, book covers, etc. that show your
interests. Laminate them and post them on the bulletin board. Let
your students ask you questions about the items on the board.

At our school we have a bulletin board in the hall that we
call "The Birthday Board". Every 2nd month a member of our PTO
gets the names of the students who have birthdays in those two months and comes
up with a theme for the board. They then write the name and birth date of
the student on whatever they've come up with to use with the theme and post them
on the board. For example: We started with the saying "It
"Snow" Secret It's Your Birthday! and wrote each of the children's
names and birth dates on a snowflake. We made the background a winter
theme.

Place those junk mail CD's upside down on a bulletin board
using straight pins to pin them on. Place them close together in rows to form a
wall of CD's. They are like a mirror and reflect the images in the room.
Looks really cute in a computer lab or technology corner. You can caption it if
you wish.

For St. Patrick's Day I covered a bulletin board with paper
clouds and wrote the students' names on them. Next to each cloud I put a
colorful rainbow and next to it a paper box that represents the pot of gold.
Inside the box I put weekly quotes for each of my students.

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KIM'S KORNER FOR TEACHER TALK
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